Ridgewood vet crossing US on motorcycle on mission to boost housing for wounded warriors

Richard King, right, of Ridgewood, hugging a supporter, gets ready to start his 10,000-mile solo motorcycle run from the Rochelle Park American Legion Post 170 Sunday.

Vietnam war medic Richard King and his motorcycle face a long road this summer, and a new live-saving mission: rally Hometown America into ensuring that when disabled war veterans come home, a proper home awaits them.

King, a 65-year-old Ridgewood resident, began a 10,000-mile motorcycle ride across the United States on Sunday at the American Legion Post No. 170 in Rochelle Park; kicking off his "Long Road Home America" fundraiser to help raise awareness about the need for housing adapted to those veterans’ injuries.

"I volunteered to go to Vietnam when I was a young man because I felt it was my obligation to share in the sacrifice my fellow Americans were making during that time," King said. "I had a rekindling of those feelings when I saw all of the parallels from the past with these post-9/11 veterans coming back with terrible wounds and needing help acclimating back into our society."

King said his time serving as a member of the 44th Medical Brigade in the 9th Division in South Vietnam in 1969 made him aware of the issues facing many veterans, and he began thinking of ways to help last October. After months of searching, King said he found the Homes For Our Troops charity, which is a national non-profit organization that builds specialty adapted homes for service members with life-altering injuries.

King said all of the money he raises through Long Road Home America will go directly to Homes For Our Troops.

"I thought this organization was perfect for what I was trying to achieve," King said. "In reality, by building these homes for them, the organization is giving them freedom and independence — the very things they were injured trying to protect for us."

In the months leading up to the kickoff on Sunday, King said he outfitted his motorcycle with metal containers he will fill with food, fuel, a spare tire with a patching kit and other accessories he might need on the journey of seven to eight weeks.

Along each leg of the trip, he said, he will stop in downtowns to meet veterans and residents and introduce them to the Long Road Home fundraiser and Homes For Our Troops charity — "I purposefully planned the trip to avoid major highways that would just jet me past all the downtowns," King said. "I wanted to be able to meet everyday people along every leg of the ride.

“People have asked me ‘Why are you doing this alone?’ ” King continued. “I tell them: In a combat situation, you are ultimately facing all of the challenges alone, and the vets coming back after those situations go through all of the challenges of coming home alone — so why wouldn’t I do this alone?”

The first step in his fundraising came on Sunday, when American Legion Post No. 170 in Rochelle Park, its motorcycle riders group and the Bergen County Harley Owners Group presented King with a check for $1,500 raised through fundraisers including beefsteak dinners, 50-50s, and donations gathered from car shows.

The two riders groups, which totaled more than 50 motorcycle riders, followed King on Sunday and paid tribute to his mission by escorting him up Routes 17 and 9W to the Bear Mountain Ridge in Rockland County, N.Y.

Bruce Amundson, president of the American Legion Post No. 170 Riders Group, said that "When Richard's cause came to our attention, we thought it was amazing and something we wanted to get behind."

King's ride will first take him north to Cape Cod and other points in Massachusetts, where he said he hopes to spend the July 4th holiday with Lance Cpl. Nicholas Eufrazio, a Marine injured in a grenade explosion on a rooftop in Afghanistan. Fellow Marine Cpl. Kyle Carpenter was awarded the congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism in the incident.

From there, King will travel across northern states — through Pennsylvania and westward, eventually landing in Portland, Ore. After traveling more than 600 miles south from Portland, King will head back east through states including Colorado, Missouri and Virginia before coming back home.

Long Road Home America is collecting donations on its website and had raised $3,205 of its $25,000 goal as of Sunday. King also has a GPS installed on his bike, so anyone on the website can track his progress across the country, he said.

As he said goodbye to family and friends on Sunday at the American Legion post in Rochelle Park, King said the reality of the situation hit him after a year of planning and anticipation of his trip.

"When I got here this morning I looked at my odometer and it said 1.5 miles," King said. "I thought to myself: Well, only 10,000 more to go."